


A Crack in the Dam

by MagalaBee



Series: MariClaude Week 2020 [3]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, MariClaude, Pre-Timeskip | Academy Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), mariclaude week, mariclaude week 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-23
Updated: 2020-04-23
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:54:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23807212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MagalaBee/pseuds/MagalaBee
Summary: Without realizing it, Marianne let a crack form in the dam. And once one tear spilled, it was hard to keep the others in.MariClaude week Day 3: Stars/Goddess Tower
Relationships: Marianne von Edmund & Claude von Riegan, Marianne von Edmund/Claude von Riegan
Series: MariClaude Week 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1712566
Comments: 4
Kudos: 25
Collections: MariClaude Week





	A Crack in the Dam

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone! I liked the idea of these two stargazing, and pairing it with the Goddess Tower and what we know Marianne went there to wish for... it turned into some teenage hurt/comfort. Something soft and maybe not quite as romantic, but still very formative for what their relationship will grow into once they're adults.
> 
> As always, if you enjoyed this, please leave some Kudos and Comments to help me know what you like or didn't!
> 
> And also thank you for your patience on any typos.

Marianne stared up at the tapestry of stars. Each light suspended in the deep, dark midnight sky. I looked almost like a series of gemstones sewing onto velvet. Thick and tangible. She reached up her hand, part of her hoping she might be able to touch those stars--

That maybe the Goddess would reach out too and pull her up there. Bring her home to a place of peace.

“It’s a nice night,” Claude whispered. He was laying next to her in the grass. This had all been his idea in the first place, when he found her trying to bring a pigeon to the Goddess Tower.

“...Yes.”

“I like this better than the dance, I think.”

That she didn’t believe.  _ Couldn’t _ believe. Claude was so charismatic and outgoing. He led their class house with ease, or at least seemed that way. Every girl in Garreg Mach wanted to dance with him tonight, why would he possibly want to lay in the snow with her instead?

“You don’t have to lie,” Marianne said, her voice trembling, her fingers trembling as they curled into her palm and she lowered her hand once more to lay at her side. 

“Who says I’m lying?” Claude asked, turning his head to look at her. Even in the dark, Marianne could feel his eyes on her. Those bright green eyes… they were handsome and intimidating. It scared her, how much he seemed to know about her just by watching.

“I know you’re j… just trying to be nice,” she muttered, still staring at the stars. Marianne couldn’t bring herself to look at him too. She might break and tell him everything if she did. About her crest, about her curse--

About the real reason she wanted to make a wish tonight.

Marianne closed her eyes, squeezing them shut as a wave of irrepressible sorrow pushed through it. It made her bones ache, like this hopelessness, this loneliness, this guilt was something physical in her chest. Growing and growing until it could break out of her and tear her heart to pieces.

Saints, she wished it would. She wished it would get it over with and end her, because at least then the gaping yawn of pain and ruin would be gone and she might finally be able to r--

“Marianne?”

She opened her eyes and saw him. Claude was sitting up, leaning over her a bit, concerned etched to strongly in his features that she could see it through the night shadows. Marianne’s breaths came short. She sat up too and began to wipe at her cheeks. When had she started crying? 

“I… I’m…” she stammered, her shoulders curling in as she tried to hide her shame. “I’m s-sorry--”

Claude shifted and Marianne heard the shuffling of clothes before he reached around her shoulders and placed the yellow half-cloak that he wore like a sash with his uniform. Even when dressed in formal attire for the White Heron Ball, he’d adorned it. As a point of pride.

“Hey… it’s ok,” Claude murmured, keeping his arm around her. “What’s wrong?”

She shook her head, now holding her face in her hands as she tried to push back her weeping. But the dam had been cracked, and it was harder to pull the tears back in after they had already started escaping.

“I… I don’t… kn-know--” Marianne managed to say as more and more spilled out of her. She knew at least part of the reason why she cried, but she didn’t know how to tell him.

How was she supposed to admit that she wanted to die? To fall deep asleep and never wake up?

She wanted to be free from the pain. The growling voices in her dreams and the stones of guilt tied to her ankles.

“Shhhh…” Claude whispered. He pulled her head in against his shoulder. “It’s ok. It’s ok, Marianne. I… I get it.”

Marianne didn’t know how. Could those handsome green eyes read her mind now? Had he somehow looked at her and seen everything she held so close? 

Claude began to rub his hand in small circles against her shoulder. “I get it. Sometimes… it’s just too much, huh? Everything is just a little bit too much.”

Marianne swallowed back a sob and her spine shuddered. Suddenly she felt cold, all of the winter air rushing in through the thick layers of her uniform coat. But Claude just kept rubbing those small circles between her shoulder blades and telling her that it was ok.

“You don’t have to say anything, Marianne. Just let it out.”


End file.
